


A Merry Little Christmas

by morganofthewildfire



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28331946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganofthewildfire/pseuds/morganofthewildfire
Summary: Loosely inspired by the Christmas song “have yourself a merry little Christmas”And Yes! I wrote another one, Christmas just seems to inspire me more than any other time of the year. Hopefully you guys like this it!
Relationships: Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien & Rowan Whitethorn, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien/Rowan Whitethorn
Comments: 7
Kudos: 26





	A Merry Little Christmas

This holiday season was going to be one for the books. And not in a good way. It would be memorable because it would be the worst one since her parents died.

Aelin was trying to make the best of it, trying to make sure her daughter still enjoyed the magic of Christmas, but without Rowan, it was hard to look at anything optimistically.

When Rowan found out his latest deployment would be over December, it had been her who pushed him to go. Aelin knew him better than she knew herself, and she knew he would feel like he was letting his fellow officers and his country down if he opted to stay home. He had met his required amount of deployments after graduating from the Terrasen Air Force Academy, but this was his passion, it was his life, and she would never make him quit.

That was when they’d met actually, when Rowan was in school. Aelin had worked at a local bar in Perranth, one where the Air Force kids liked to go, and she was bartending when he came in for the first time. Right away, from the moment he shot her a small smile and looked at her with his deep green eyes, she was smitten. And he felt the same. A whirlwind romance led them to marriage in less than a year, with Eliott coming six months after that. It was a bit scandalous for Rowan’s very conservative family, but they all loved her so no protest was raised.

Obviously, she knew what she was getting into when he went to the other side of the world on deployments every so often, but it was tough to be alone. She missed his warmth in bed at night, missed his company while watching TV on the couch, missed his understanding and being able to just  _ talk  _ to him every day. And now, it just got harder and harder to answer Eliott’s constant “ _ where’s daddy?” “When’s daddy coming home?”.  _ Especially when Aelin didn’t know herself.

Eliott was only 4, so this Christmas wasn’t exactly monumental, but it still hurt to see the tears pooling in her little girl’s eyes when the calendar counted down further and Rowan still wasn’t there.

But Aelin tried. She really did. She planned a different activity for the two of them to do everyday, some holiday cheer to distract from the missing body in their house.

Last week was ice skating, building snowmen, making cookies, decorating the tree, so on and so forth. And this week so far consisted of making some snowflakes, bringing cookies to their neighbors, and buying and wrapping presents for Uncle Aedion and Aunt Lysandra and all of their other friends.

But Christmas Eve was now upon them, and Eliott hadn’t smiled once. Their usual routine of dinner and dessert, tracking Santa on the computer, watching Rudolph and then going to bed after reading her precious Christmas picture book was all disrupted because her dad wasn’t there to do it all with her.

“Eliott, baby, are you ready to put out the cookies for Santa?” Aelin asked, making sure to sound excited. “We can put some carrots for the reindeers too.”

“Yeah…” Eliott said dejectedly, a frown on her perfect face as she leaned further into the couch cushion.

“And don’t forget our call tonight, it’ll be fun to see Uncle Aedion and Aunt Lysandra right? And Aunt Elide and Uncle Dorian and everyone else?” That  _ almost  _ got a smile out of her, close enough to where Aelin felt a little accomplished, if not a little desperate to raise those lips all the way up in the corners.

None of her friends lived in the same city, whether due to work or to family or to whatever else drew them to different places, so it was tradition to do a group video call on Christmas Eve to see each other.

Aelin and Rowan currently were staying in Suria, due to the air base there, but they used to live in Orynth with Aedion and Lysandra, so Eliott was particularly close with them.

Therefore, less than an hour later, when their faces popped up on Aelin’s laptop, Eliott smiled for the first time that night.

“Hi, Elli!” Lysandra cooed affectionately, and Eliott babbled a response back. Aedion said a sarcastic hello to Aelin and they all chatted for a bit waiting for more people to join.

Aedion insisted on being the host of the meeting, for reasons unbeknownst to her, so he had to let everyone in when they tried to enter the room.

“Eliott!” Cried Dorian when he got in, but she was already using her small attention span for Elide, who had joined before him, so he was left unanswered.

“Better luck next time, Dor,” Aelin laughed, grunting as Eliott climbed on her lap. She wrapped her arms around her baby and held her close, resting her chin on her head when she snuggled back into her.

“I feel betrayed,” he muttered from his small square on the screen.

“You’ll be hard pressed to get a hello back once Chaol and Yrene join.” Dorian huffed and Aelin cackled again. Chaol and Yrene had a small son about Eliott’s age, and despite only seeing each other maybe twice a year, they always took to each other immediately. Yrene and Aelin liked to joke they would get married someday, Rowan was always less than fond of the idea, frowning at the very mention of his daughter with a boy.

If only he was here now.

And Aelin was right. Once the three of them joined, Eliott’s attention went to them right away, leaving the adults to chit chat about their Christmas plans.

Dorian was going over to Chaol and Yrene’s for Christmas morning, Aedion and Lysandra were calling Aelin again, and Elide was going to her parents. Elide was dating Lorcan Salvaterre, Rowan’s squad commander, so she was the only one who could kind of relate to what Aelin was going through.

Except she didn’t have a kid waiting for her dad to get home.

Eliott’s frown returned when everyone started logging off an hour later, and Aelin herself was about to leave when Aedion interrupted.

“Wait, Aelin, can you stay in for a second?” He said, a small smile on his face that made her suspicious, “I have something I need to talk to you about.” She paused her motion toward the exit button and leaned back into the couch, still holding Eliott.

“What’s up?” She asked, looking at him with her eyebrows raised. Her hand found Eliott’s hair and petted soothing strokes when she saw the tears start forming again. Apparently now that the excitement was over, her daughter was hit with the reminder again that Rowan wasn’t there to kiss her goodnight.

But Aedion didn’t respond, instead he looked like he wasn’t even on the same screen, a concentrated look on his face as he fiddled with the mouse.

“What are you doing?” Aelin pressed, starting to get annoyed when he didn’t answer.

“Just give me a sec.” She scoffed but let him work, placing a gentle kiss to Eliott’s head. Lysandra had left the screen by now, going off to do something and leaving her fiancé to ask Aelin whatever was so pressing, so she was left staring at Aedion’s face as she waited.

Finally, a look of triumph overtook his features and she heard the entrance sound on the video call, just adding to her confusion.

“Who’s joining?” Aelin asked as another screen popped up, the picture still loading. “No one missed the c-“ her voice dropped off as a sob escaped her. Because on her laptop, the screen finally loaded and she was staring at the face of her husband, of her partner, of the love of her life.

“Daddy!” Eliott cried out, stabbing Aelin in the stomach as she jumped off to get closer to the computer. But Aelin didn’t even care, too overcome by the green eyes looking out. She barely even noticed Aedion switching over the host abilities to her and quietly exiting, leaving the family to talk alone.

“Hey darling,” came Rowan’s crackly voice. Wherever he was, the reception wasn’t very good, but she could still see and hear him well enough. Just him being here at all was all she needed.

His brilliant smile was directed at their daughter, listening intently as she babbled away about everything they’d been doing, about ice skating and the snowflakes and the snowmen, and Aelin was glad she found some joy in it, even if it would be made better by the simple presence of her dad.

Rowan was wearing his full uniform, meaning he was probably still on duty and somehow convinced Lorcan for some time to do this.

“So you had some fun today?” He asked Eliott when she paused to take a breath. But despite her earlier excitement, she deflated at the question.

“I miss you,” Eliott murmured quietly, pressing a small hand to the screen. Aelin’s heart fractured, and so did Rowan’s if the look on his face was any indication.

“I know, baby, I miss you too.” He smiled softly. “But I’ll be home soon, in no time at all. We’ll celebrate when I get back, and next Christmas will be even  _ more _ special.” Eliott sniffed, but nodded and Aelin had an idea.

“Eliott.” Her daughter looked back at her. “Why don’t you go pick out your absolute  _ favorite _ snowflake we made to show daddy.” She immediately smiled and scampered off to the pile that she was keeping in her room. Aelin turned back to the camera and smiled a watery smile at her husband.

“Hi,” she managed to get out, throat tight with unshed tears. He was here and he was  _ talking _ to her. It was through a screen, but it was much more than she was ever hoping for.

“Hi, love,” Rowan replied, a fond smile on his face.

“How’d you manage to wrangle this?” Aelin chuckled, trying to keep the mood light despite the tears now dripping down her face. He shrugged and looked over his shoulder quickly before winking conspiratorially.

“Lorcan’s a big softie really,” he said, “he agreed pretty easily, and Aedion helped me set it up, although I most likely have to leave in a few minutes.” He checked the watch on his wrist before looking back at her. “How’s Christmas been back home?”

It was Aelin’s turn to shrug.

“Not the same. I don’t know, I’ve been trying to distract Eliott, but every night she asks about you, and she cried a few times today when she realized you weren’t going to be here to tuck her in.” She wiped away a tear of her own and saw Rowan try to sniffle discreetly.

“What about you, Fireheart? How’ve you been doing?” Aelin glanced down at her hands.

“Oh, you know, just trying to get through the holidays,” she shrugged again, “it’s hard, but I have Eliott to focus on.” Rowan nodded, understanding what she wasn’t saying. Knowing how difficult it was to do everything alone.

“I miss you,” he whispered, love and devastation on his face.

“I miss you, too.” She reached a hand toward the screen just like Eliott had, as if she could somehow reach through and touch hands with the man who held her heart, safe in his grasp half a world away.

Just then, a stern voice yelled out “ _ Whitethorn _ ” through Rowan’s camera, and he turned his head to search for the noise, swearing when he looked back around.

“I have to go,” he said, regret dropping from his voice, “tell Eliott I love her so so much and that next Christmas will be the best one of her life.”

Aelin nodded, “I will.”

“And tell yourself that I love you with all of my heart and I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again.” He smiled sadly as she wiped another tear away.

“I love you,” she said through a veil of tears, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as the sound of him leaving came through the speaker.

She would be fine. They would be fine.  _ He  _ would be fine.

It was then that Eliott came back into the room, clutching multiple snowflakes instead of just one, face falling at her mother’s tears.

“He had to go, baby, I’m sorry,” Aelin told her daughter, cracking at the disappointment in her eyes. Eliott nodded sadly and came to sit up by Aelin on the couch, cuddling close into her arms.

“I don’t like being sad on Christmas,” she muttered into Aelin’s shirt, and it made her chuckle despite the situation.

“I know, sweetheart, but next year will be better.” She looked down at her daughter’s big green eyes, so similar to Rowan’s. “You know your dad loves you very much,” Eliott nodded, “and you know he’ll be home as soon he can,” she nodded again, “so we’ll just have to wait. But in the meantime, let’s try and make  _ this  _ Christmas special too, okay?” Eliott nodded a third and final time before smiling slightly.

“Can you read me my story?” She asked timidly, and Aelin almost melted. Rowan always read it to her, always read it in a very specific way according to Eliott, a way that Aelin herself couldn’t replicate. So for her to be asking her to read it, it meant a lot.

“Of course, darling.” Aelin tapped her nose playfully. “Now let’s go get ready for bed so we can be tucked in to sleep before Santa comes.”

Eliott giggled and got up to run to her room, Aelin following closely behind.

Maybe this Christmas wasn’t the best in the world, but at least they had a home, a warm bed, a ton of loving friends, and each other. And a man fighting for them thousands of miles away, just ready for the day he could return to his little family welcoming him home with open arms.


End file.
